World champion boxer Ebanie Bridges has been forced to defend a tweet she posted about gun control after 19 children were killed in a school shooting.
Bridges, who won her world title in March against Maria Cecilia Roman, was responding to a fan who claimed gun control meant "only government had guns" when she made an off-colour remark about Australia and the UK not having "school shootings". And within 24 hours she had to clarify the message by telling fans that context was lost in her initial tweet.
The boxer had initially tweeted that "America really needs to change their damn gun laws," in a message after the Robb Elementary School shooting that saw 19 children and two adults murdered. Seventeen others were wounded in the tragic shooting, the 27th at a school this year.
Most of the responses to the tweet were supportive of Australian's stance, but one fan took issue, sharing a meme that read "'gun control' means that only the government will have guns, and if you're ignorant enough to believe that's a good idea, then you really need to read some history books".
Bridges replied with a series of laughing emojis, saying "Australia and UK doing alright… At least we don’t have mass school shootings every few months."
The reply proved incredibly controversial, with one fan replying sharing a photo of the children killed in the shooting and saying "I wonder if the parents and families of these children would find it funny." Another fan responded "Why are you laughing and talking about school shootings in the same sentence?"
Bridges then shared her tweet again, with a screenshot of the meme and the caption: "This was a reply to this, it again got taken out of context I was laughing at this fool who thinks gun control is bad. Australia and the UK have strict gun laws hence why we don’t have mass shootings! No malice I'm Just stressing how this fear of gun control isn’t necessary as it works!"
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Fans were generally supportive of Bridges, with one replying "Given the repeated mass shootings in the US, why don’t people think it’s even worth a try. As you said, the UK, Australia has mass shootings in the past, but they acted, they brought in tough regulations, stringent penalties. Result - no mass shootings."
Another said: "Social media - where 50 per cent can't understand context and most of the others don't care about context because they're getting off on rage. You could've phrased it better to avoid misunderstanding, but I never thought for a second you were laughing at anything other than the guy."
Bridges is planning to fight multiple times in 2022, with Eddie Hearn saying he can see her competing as three more times before the end of the year. She has relocated from Australia to the UK to train under Mark Tibbs, who guided her to world title glory in March.
